


Jehovahjireh

by CorpseBrigadier



Series: Drinking For Days Gone By [17]
Category: Final Fantasy Tactics
Genre: Gen, Religious Imagery & Symbolism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-21
Updated: 2019-07-21
Packaged: 2020-07-10 04:57:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19900204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CorpseBrigadier/pseuds/CorpseBrigadier
Summary: Wiegraf and Izlude discuss the mechanics of martyrdom while stopping at the capital.





	Jehovahjireh

**Author's Note:**

> **Note on Names:** I freely mix PSX and PSP names without remorse.

Izlude balanced on the railing of the overlook, calmly walking one step after another as though his soft-soled boots were firm on the ground below. The wind was warm that summer's evening, and he stood, backlit by the red and gold spires of Lesalia like a saint circumscribed within stained glass.

"Do you ever think about what it will feel like to die?" he asked contemplatively.

"Yes," Wiegraf replied bluntly, looking up momentarily from the whetstone with which he'd been polishing his blade. "I'm not rushing to find out, however. Get down from there."

Izlude smiled with slight embarrassment as he stepped lightly to the stone floor. 

"I mean, can you imagine what it's like to die... fearlessly? Not just bravely or something, but with that assurance that there's really nothing you could fear?" He fidgeted with the edge of his glove, feeling he wasn't making himself understood. "Like... the way saints die."

"Yes," Wiegraf said, his tone a touch darker this time. "I don't think on that often these days, though."

"I sometimes try to think what it must have been like to be Ajora, you know?—to know with that absolute perfection of purpose that you'd just pass into the Kingdom? I mean, maybe we cant know, being men, but I think of what I'd do if I had to face a Golgorand. What it's like to just let them slip the noose around your neck and smile and just peacefully step..."

"You should think about other things, Izlude," Wiegraf interrupted. "The Kingdom's still a way off."

"Is it?" Izlude's eyes widened. "You believe in the cause, don't you? That we'll see a new world, right?"

The sword edge slipped, and he knew he'd made a bad stroke. Breathing calmly, he set it aside before he ruined it further. Izlude didn't notice, still half-monologuing to the sunset.

"Surely that's worth the sacrifice?" he said. "Or at least the faith to make one? The Farists were wicked, but even their Gods only demanded the patriarch make the gestures and accidents of a sacrifice. Ajora is surely kinder."

Wiegraf stood up. "I don't know much about Farism," he said dryly. "I wasn't recruited as a theologian."

"Sorry," Izlude said sheepishly. "I'm rambling."

"This is your first mission, isn't it?"

"Yeah. Did my father tell you?"

Wiegraf didn't reply. He wished he had been assigned another companion on this journey.

"We'll do just fine not dying, you know?" Wiegraf finally said in as warm a humor as he was able. "God's seeing sacrifice enough these days without adding our blood to the altar."

Izlude nodded, trying to look reassured.

"Besides," he continued quietly, picking up the sword and stone as he walked back into the darkness of the chapel, "I'm not sure heaven has much use for my blood anyway."

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the FFA prompt ["100 Words of Human Sacrifice"](https://fail-fandomanon.dreamwidth.org/374060.html?thread=2189469228#cmt2189469228)
> 
> * * *
> 
> **Fun Facts:** The title is taken from the name of the location given for the Biblical sacrifice of Isaac (lit meaning: "The Lord will provide"). I feel that Izlude, what with his dad actually murdering him while not murdering the ram chilling out nearby, is a great kid to read as an inverted Isaac figure.


End file.
